Case vacuum cooling iceberg lettuce

Botzenhard at Ulm (Germany) One of the many (foreign) customers using our vacuum coolers for quickly cooling back (iceberg) lettuce immediately after harvest. Practice shows that when iceberg lettuce is cooled back in the vacuum condenser within one hour after harvest, the cutting surface is not discolored! Furthermore, the lettuce stays fresh and crisp significantly longer, and the storage and transport time are substantially extended.

Also "same day delivery" is often an important argument for (iceberg) lettuce growers. Elements like saving storage space, faster response times and emphasizing freshness with the vacuum cooling concept from a marketing perspective are very important.

Cooling right after harvesting

Vacuum cooling of iceberg lettuce is standard practice at many (leading) farmers. Not only does it guarantee quality preservation in even the hottest summers, it also offers many advantages on the side.

“Since we invested in our vacuum cooler, we always can cool down our lettuce within 15 – 25 minutes to around 4 °C. Final cooling to 0.5 °C takes place in our cold room, which now always stays at its ideal temperature”, states our German grower Martin Botzenhard.

“When we vacuum cooler within 1 hour after harvesting, the cutting surface will not turn brown anymore, increasing it’s value & shelf life” , states one of the leading growers if the Dutch Growers Cooperation Fossa Eugenia.

“Through vacuum cooling, we can easily ship our iceberg lettuce long distance, and increase storage life by up to three weeks or more”, says our customer Andreas Sporrer from Sprinz Gemüse in Germany.